Friday, April 24, 2015

I was commissioned to create a painting for Theory Brand Agency in Salt Lake City, Ut. Their client lives in Sonoma County, California and has a story behind how he could not get olives trees planted into his property due to size and weight.

This piece was designed to have a classic illustrative feel that you would see in vintage wine and olive oil ads. Beige and tan background give the painting a feeling of age with hints of browns at the trunk level and greens at the leaf level to imply the balance of earth and fauna.

I used willow blanches and willow leaves to stipple ink onto the surface to give a sense of light and dark patches to represent depth of field in the main body.

It was a great project to work on and I enjoyed collaborating with the owner of Theory Brand Agency, Jolene Smith. She is a creative powerhouse.

Monday, January 12, 2015

I have been invited by the Utah Arts Festival to help participate in their Masquerade Charity again this year. (I have previous posts in January of the past two years if you want to see older entries)

I love creating these masks for the Festival, it is a charitable event and all proceeds go to help the festival survive. The have a gallery opening on Friday the 16th at the Utah Arts Festival HQ in downtown Salt Lake City if you happen to be in town.

I collaborated with my girlfriend Jolene Smith for the idea on the masks.

The two masks form one heart when placed together, but separated they are broken. The female (left side) is passion and life and love and is naive to the loss that is about to happen. The male side is sad and lonely even in the relationship he is done and wishes to move on and he weeps because of his silence, but he loves her so much.